Every time I see one these literal videos, I figure it's going to be terrible, but it usually turns out to be the video they are mocking that's a mess. Who knew Total Eclipse of the Heart, which I just despise, had such a creepy, nonsensical video? (Link via Neatorama)

Mmm, nothing cures a hangover like a Lust For Life breakfast, with a heap of fried Iggys. From artist Scott Campbell via his show at Gallery1988. This gallery continues to melt my brain with concentrated awesomeness.

Broccoli and cabbage, yum! Who wouldn't want this truck in their neighbourhood? Reminds me of the cart that drives around here in the summer, ringing a bell. You start salivating, until you see it's the knife-sharpening guy. Oh, I've got a dull blade for you!

"A towel, [says the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy], is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough."

So just under the wire I found out it was Towel Day, a tribute to the much-missed Douglas Adams. Seems it's been going on since 2001 and I've never heard about it. Too bad, as I always known where my towel is.

The downside of this celebration is the realization that Eoin Colfer has indeed followed through on his abomination of a sixth installation of the Guide, entitled And Another Thing... and is due this fall. I still can't get by what a staggeringly, jaw-droppingly bad idea this is. Please, leave well enough alone and let us celebrate with our towels, lest we feed you to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.

I guess that settles the whole Ginger vs. Mary Ann debate. From pop artist Isabel Samaras, who has some wonderfully smutty takes on Robin and the Green Hornet, and Samantha and the Darrins. I love seeing high art subverted by pop culture. (Link via The Zeray Gazette, who is finding all sorts of great stuff)

Edward Scissorhands is not the best rock, paper, scissors player. But Edward can just shred the smug little grin off that kid after losing for the fifth time. From Threadless t-shirt designer chippos. You can vote for this below, which I have done after finally joining Threadless after pimping their shirts for months. (Link via Super Punch)

From Jorge Cham's Piled Higher & Deeper, about the ongoing chronicle of life (or the lack thereof) in grad school. As someone who works deep in the bowels of both the media and the internets and spent an inordinate amount of time at university, this is pretty much how it works. (Link via The Zeray Gazette)

While the real stars of Slumdog Millionaire keep having their shanties knocked down they can always dream of being the next contestant on The Price Is Right. And all they'd have to do is take a beating from Drew Carey.

A fun parody, if a couple of months late. How they missed a spade or neutered joke I don't know.

If anyone ever wondered what really destroyed the ozone layer, it was hair bands from the 1980s. Don't believe me? Check out the Best Hair of the 80's Hair Metal Bands and look in amazement at how much hairspray must have been deployed for each photo shoot.

Back in those dark days, I started to believe there were really only a half dozen guys playing in all these band. There was almost always a blonde guy and three or four other poodle-permed dude and they would just switch their spandex/leather/demin uniforms and pose for another pic. Only Jon Bon Jovi dared tell the truth: "It's all the same, only the names will change." Which is why he was wanted, dead or alive. (Link via Media-Digest)

The future is in jeopardy unless Sarah Connor can, um, hand out some happy endings. Maybe the future isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Of course it could just be a result of the all the damn time traveling. Enough already!

Sarah Connor is in the fight of her life with a murderous cyborg from the future — a murderous cyborg with floppy ears. I'll be back... for carrots. Oh, and yay for Starz and the 30-Second Bunnies for allowing embeding! Maybe I'll go back and update my previous posts, but I doubt it.

Q: ...suppose for a second that your house was ransacked by thugs, your family tied up in the basement with socks in their mouths, you try to open the door but there's too much blood_ on the knob...A; What is your question?Q: My question is about t-shirts, sir.

The tale of Little Red Riding Hood, as told by animated infographics, breaking down the route, the makeup of the woods and the nutritional value of grandma. Brilliant stuff by graphic design student Tomas Nilsson — yep, this was just as student project. Amazing. (Link via Listicles)

But it does follow the Brothers Grimm thought that the wolf was evil and we all now that neither women nor girls are willing to play the victim these days.

My, what a big bike you have! A not-so-little Red Riding Hood, rom a series of Australian shoe advertisements (go figure), re-imagining some classic fairytale heroines, including Snow White, Rapunzel and Cinderella.

An Indian version of The Simpsons, featuring Bartinder Singhson, Omar Singhson, Mar Ji Singhson, Lisajit Singhson and Mugglie Singhson and more Indian stereotypes than you can count.

Judging by its view numbers, I'm the very last person to watch this, but I'm posting it anyway.

The Singhsons is, apparently, a sHaMoZzLe Video Vault Award winning video parody created by Aaron Pendland in Portland, Oregon to showcase the creative talent of Pendland Creative. Maybe, but you can't view it on either site, so who knows.

"In this pottery shard, we can clearly see Chuck Norris beheading Medusa with his famous round-house kick. Chuck Norris is so tough he could stare Medusa in the eye and not turn to stone."

Of course the whole legend of Hercules is just a bastardization of Chuck Norris' early life that is so fantastic that it had to be draped in myth so people could comprehend it without going insane. At least that's what I recall from my Greek Mythology class — I wasn't paying too close attention. That degree sure has come in handy!

I knew you couldn't dive into a pile of gold coins! Finally, cartoons have finally stopped lying to me. As a kid I was fascinated with Scrooge McDuck and his money vault and for Richie Rich as well, for that matter. No wonder were so accepting of the weirdness of the über-rich, having been feed these tales of excess as children.

But that's neither here nor there, as we all now know the wealthy have their problems too, as Fatal Farm's even creepier version of the DuckTales opener shows:

Tonight's the season finale before the final season of Lost. Given the show's history, the past couple of episodes and J.J. Abrams love of time travel (see Star Trek) it will likely be a head scratcher.

Which is just fine with me. The question is often asked if the writers are making it up as they go along and the answer is, of course they are. That's how good writing is done — you have to see where it take you. If the whole series managed to wrap up without a few ponderables left over, I'd be very disappointed. You want answers to everything? Then don't ask any questions.

That being said, if you want a group to mull those questions and elusive answers with, there is no better place than Nik at Nite who, with her loyal readers, read the entrails of each episode and take you places you didn't know you were going. Highly recommended.

And if you want to hash over who and how characters have been killed off, look to Topless Robot's The 10 Most Shafted Characters from Lost. I totally agree on Libby and Walt, but who defends Paulo and Nikki?

As for the above image (via In Web We Trust) I once again have a cool, yet unattributed image. Anyone seen it before?

Road Runner, the coyote's after you. And if you catch him, you're through, Carnivorous depresius.

Anyone know where this image is from? I've been scouring the interwebs trying to source it, but to no avail. It has the look of Family Guy, but doesn't appear to be. I found it on Nick McGlynn, but there was no attribution.

This is something I'm noticing a lot of tumble blogs — they often have cool designs and cool finds, but they are often a little lax about the giving credit, beyond the site they first found it on, which drives me crazy. I know I'm not creating anything original here, but I love sharing what I find and telling others where to find more.

Porn star Ron Jeremy's detached penis goes on a rampage while the cast and crew of an adult film try and stop the alien-possessed member's killing spree. This has got to be the funniest, disturbing concepts I have ever heard of, and it's not a parody. It's available now on DVD and, best of all, is called One Eyed Monster. Ahhh!

If that wasn't enough, they have mocked up classic movie posters, including my favourite, The Exorcist. There are several others - be sure not to miss the version of Cloverfield that is very, very wrong. (Link via Screen Junkies)

Are they washing a Stormtrooper's armor or a Stormtrooper? Either way, be nice to your mothers and wives, my fellow pop culture geeks, they put up with a lot. And see more Stormtroopers at waihey's photostream.

This Monty Python meets the original cast of Star Trek fan mashup is a geektastic double bill. Some how the fine folks at Boing Boing misfiled this video under the Best worst Star Trek parodies, which is insane as it is clearly awesome.

Had enough of these Trek posts and just wish it would all go away? Well, good luck with that. "...between our quests we sequin vests and impersonate Clark Gable."

Welcome to Star Trek as as a 1980's high school comedy, as envisioned by Dan Meth. In Trek Yourself, Khan is a pink-shirted, popped-collar, preppy bully, Klingons are dumb jocks and James T. Kirk is the new kid at school, helping the geeks be cool. Who says there can only be one Trek reboot? The Trek universe is already loose with the canon, as far as I can see.

The Star Trek reboot may be on the pop culture horizon, but today is Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you) and so The Ampersand interrupted Star Trek Week to revisit a cultural lesson on the yin/yang nature of the galaxy's most lucrative beloved sci-fi franchises.

Star Trek and Star Wars are like matter and antimatter: They cannot truly exist without each other (for both are necessary to keep the geekosphere supplied with oxygen in the form of new material), yet both cannot occupy the same place at the same time. An ascendant Star Trek precludes a strong Star Wars and vice versa, as both vying simultaneously for sci-fi fans’ attention would prove too nerdsplosive for the mainstream media to handle.

Read the full explanation at The Ampersand and see which fan favourite is currently transcendent.

Beaker, the put upon assistant of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, really does take the most abuse of any Muppet. But this time he's going for the wind with his version of Ode To Joy, over at the Webby Awards. And you can't help him with your vote, because I don't read my subscriptions in a timely fashion! But this mayhem-filled video is still worth watching. Mee-mee-mee, Beaker, mee-mee-mee.

Update: It appears that Beaker does win on occasion, taking home a People's Voice award at the Webbys for Ode to Joy. As a reward for the people who voted, they have pulled the above video. One step forward, two steps back, Muppets crew.

So when the character you are playing in a video games dies and you get another life, is it the same guy reincarnated? Not according to pop artist Bill Mudron, who envisions a mass grave of red overall clad plumber clones, rotting just off the side of the game. (Link via In Web We Trust)

Ha! Sounds like me at a bar. All loud talk, not sure if anyone is listening. Everyone is piling on Twitter these days. Even my work was snickering at its failings yesterday, just a day after announcing we are suspending publication of the Monday edition for the summer. Much eye-rolling over both.